GUILDFORD BOROUGH COUNCIL. CONCERTS 197980
54th Enterprising Concert
Philharmonic Choir
The Philharmonic Choir is the larger of the two
choirs under the conductorship of the Musical
Director, who acknowledges with thanks the help he
has received in training the choir from Kenneth
Lank and accompanists Linden Knight and Patricia
Wood. The Choir made its first recording in 1973
GUILDFORD BOROUGH
COUNCIL CONCERTS
1979/80
CIVIC HALL, GUILDFORD
with
the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra:
“Intimitations of Immortality’’ by Gerald Finzi, and
in 1976 recorded Hadley’s “The Trees So High”
SATURDAY 9 FEBRUARY 1980
at 7.45 p.m.
with the Philharmonic Orchestra.
DAVID WILSON-JOHNSON
Guildford
David Wilson-Johnson (baritone) was born in
Northampton, and read French and Italian at
Cambridge before going on to the Royal Academy
of Music. In 1977, he won the National Federation
of Music Societies’ Award for Young Artists, and
was elected to a Music Fellowship by the
Gulbenkian Foundation the following year. He is
now the Frederick Shinn Fellow at the Royal
Academy of Music, where he continues to develop
Philharmonic
Orchestra
and expand his already extensive repertoire.
Leader JOHN LUDLOW
Philharmonic Choir
David Wilson-Johnson
Sally Burgess
Martyn Hill
Paul Wilson
Vernon Handley
He has broadcast many times for the BBC, and has
recorded for Erato and Decca, most recently with
the London Sinfonietta in Birtwistle’s opera ‘“‘Punch
and Judy”. Recitals and oratorio engagements have
taken him to most countries in Europe, and his
performances of Peter Maxwell Davies’ “Eight
Songs for a Mad King” for the Paris Opera last
spring have led to engagements with Geneva Opera
and a research project with IRCAM in Paris.
In the classical repertoire, Mr. Wilson-Johnson has
established an enviable reputation and has
performed at many festivals, including Aldeburgh,
Berlin, Edinburgh, Flanders, Holland, and the
Three Choirs. This season’s schedule for him
includes a recording of Monteverdi’s ‘“Christmas
Vespers”, Britten’s “Cantata Misericordium” with
the BBC Symphony Orchestra, performances of
works by Schoenberg and Elliott Carter with Boulez
and the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and eight
performances of Mendelssohn’s “Elijah”. He will be
singing in several first performances: as well as
tonight’s orchestral song cycle by Roger Steptoe, he
will perform a new song-cycle commissioned by
David Wilson-Johnson from Edward Cowie,
“Brighella’s World”, and at this year’s Edinburgh
Festival, Peter Maxwell Davies’ new chamber
opera, “The Lighthouse”.
SALLY BURGESS
Although still only in her 20s, this young soprano
This concert is promoted by Guildford Borough Council
with
financial
Association.
support
from
the
South
East
Arts
has already made a considerable impression with
her concert and opera appearances. She made her
Festival Hall debut singing the Brahms Requiem
with
the
Bach
Choir
conducted
by
Sir
David
Willcocks, and has recently performed Fanshawe’s
African Sanctus with them in the Royal Albert Hall.
Sally Burgess studied at the Royal College of Music
with Hervey Allen and Marion Studholme, and was
awarded a Leverhulme Scholarship whilst studying
at the R.C.M. Opera School.
On leaving the R.C.M., she joined the English
National Opera to sing Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and
has since sung Cherubino,
Dido,
Michaela and
Phyllis (Iolanthe).
Sally
was
chosen
to
represent
Britain
in
the
International Singing Competition in Bratislava in
1978. She gave a Wigmore Hall recital in
1978
sponsored by the I.S.M., and has given a number of
recitals
of contemporary
music
with
the
Ballet
Rambert, and will perform Pierrot Lunaire by
Schoenberg with them at Sadlers Wells in July.
She
has
made
several
recordings
with
EMI,
and taken part in a number of opera recordings
including Charpentier’s ‘“Louise” (EMI) with
Nicolai Gedda and Beverley Sills, and
Shostakovich’s “Katerina Ismailova’ conducted by
Rostropovich. In October 1979 he took part in the
world premi¢re of Roger Steptoe’s opera ‘“‘King of
Macedon’
to
a
libretto
by
Ursula
Vaughan
Williams.
Mr. Hill is also a distinguished recital singer. He
appears as a guest with “The Songmakers’
Almanac”, and has made four recital records;
Weber, Schubert, French chansons and Beethoven.
His many other recordings include a wide range of
early music and of Bach and Handel, and the
complete songs of John Dowland.
This season Martyn HIIl will continue to develop
the
many
facets
of
his
career.
Important
engagements include several Britten performances,
a recital tour of Finland, Handel’s ““Saul’ in Bruges
(opening the Flanders Festival) and a recording of
for EMI, two contemporary music
broadcasts with Nash Ensemble, concerts with the
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and the
including Handel’s ‘“Belshazzar’s Feast”, and will
shortly record Handel’s “Saul”. She has also
recorded for Phonogram Mendelssohn’s “Hymn of
“Saul”
Praise’” with Margaret Price and Riccardo Chailly
Academy of Ancient Music, broadcast recordings in
Brussels, Cologne and Stuttgart, and further
concerts in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.
conducting.
Guildford audiences will remember Sally Burgess
for her delightful performance of Carey Blighton’s
“Lachrymae’ in 1977.
Martyn Hill appeared with Vernon Handley and
the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra in 1967 and
1974 and collaborated with Vernon Handley in a
recording of Delius’s “‘Hassan”’.
MARTYN HILL
Martyn Hill (tenor) was born in Rochester, Kent.
He won a Choral Scholarship to King’s College,
Cambridge, and then went to the Royal College of
Music. Later he went to study with Audrey
Langford, with whom he still works.
Mr. Hill’s career has taken him all over the world.
He has appeared at most of the British Festivals,
including the Three Choirs, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh,
Bath, City of London and King’s Lynn Festivals,
and many times at the Proms. In 1977 he sang
Massenet’s ‘“Marie Magdalene” for French Radio
PAUL WILSON
Paul Wilson (baritone) comes from Cardiff, and
after reading English at Jesus College, Oxford, he
was awarded a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal
College of Music in London.
Paul Wilson has performed a considerable amount
of oratorio in the provinces, the major London
concert halls and in Paris as soloist with the Bach
Choir, where he broadcast for French Radio.
Other broadcasting work includes a recital in the
Radio 3 Concert Hall series and several concerts for
at only twenty-four hours notice, since when he has
returned many times to*France. He has sung
Berlioz’s ‘“‘Damnation of Faust” in Belgrade, the
Monteverdi Vespers in Frankfurt and Stuttgart,
contemporary Israeli music (in Hebrew) at the
Festival of Israel, the Christmas Oratorio for the
afield as Nairobi and he has just completed the final
Netherlands Bach Society, and, in 1978, Britten’s
season of “‘Opera for All”.
“War Requiem” (with the Vancouver Bach Choir)
and “Serenade’ (with CBC) on his first trip to
Canada.
Martyn Hill’s operatic debut was made with Kent
Opera in “The Marriage of Figaro”, and he has
subsequently sung ‘“Sosarme’ at the Bath Festival
BBC Wales Radio 4 amongst which was the first
performance of Grace William’s ‘““My Last
Duchess”.
His operatic performances have taken him as far
He appeared with the New Opera Company at the
London Coliseum in Shostakovich’s “The Nose”
conducted by the composer’s son, Maxim. In July
he joins Kent Opera with whom he will sing the
Marquis in “La Traviata’ in the production which
will be performed at the Edinburgb Festival.
Vernon Handley
Vernon Handley, Musical Director of the Guildford
Philharmonic Orchestra, is now one of Britain’s
busiest conductors working regularly with all the
major London and regional orchestras. He was born
in Enfield, North London and studied at Balliol
College, Oxford and the Guildhall School of Music
and Drama. Vernon Handley has been Musical
Director of the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra
since 1962 and has developed it into a fully
professional body of major importance, which is
now firmly establishing itself as ‘The Orchestra of
the South East’ with concerts in many towns
throughout the South East region from Canterbury
to Winchester.
In 1974 the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain
named Vernon Handley as ‘‘Conductor of the Year”
for his services to British music and, now recognised
as one of the major champions of British music, he is
frequently entrusted with the world premiere of new
works. He is very busy in the recording field and has
an extensive list of recordings in the current
catalogue including works by Dvorak, Tchaikovsky,
Elgar, Tippett, Debussy, Vaughan Williams and
Faure. Many recordings are planned, including the
possibility of a further recording with the Guildford
Philharmonic Orchestra.
In spite of his crowded schedule, Vernon Handley
still manages to escape to his Welsh home for a
period every year to work on enlarging his already
immense repertoire and to follow his keen interest in
ornithology.
LES OFFRANDES OUBLIEES
Messiaen b.1908
“Les Offrandes Oubliees’ was written in 1930 and
first performed in 1931 at the Theatre de Champs
Elysees, Paris. The composer was twenty-two and
claims that this was his first contact with a large
public. The title means literally ‘“The Forgotten
Offerings”. Contrary to the popularly held view that
Messiaen wrote obscure music, the work is
unusually clean in form and has an exact
programme. The “Forgotten Offerings” are the
Cross and the Eucharist which, in the work, are
represented by passages on the strings very slow and
very quiet. These are the beginning and the end of
the work, and both are made of exactly the same
melodic material. The central ferocious Allegro
represents sin, or, as the composer put it, a “race to
the abyss”. So the sin is the forgetting of God. We
THE INHERITOR
Roger Steptoe b.1953
“The Inheritor’’ for baritone and orchestra,
composed between early August and late November
1979, lasts for approximately thirty minutes and
consists of settings of five poems by Ursula Vaughan
Williams. Each poem deals with a different aspect of
archeology and seen through the eyes of the baritone
soloist.
The first song called ‘“Prologue’ reflects the past,
the people and their lives: “I walk among the ruins,
gaze at broken stone, touch coin and cup, read
man'’s silenced speech . . . .”. Musically it is heroic,
expansive, yet highly lyrical. The two verses are
linked by an orchestral passage and the rocking 6/8
rhythm permeates the entire work. The movement
ends quietly: “the intimate sadness of some light
fragile bone”, and establishes a tonic of B on which
the ‘Prologue’ began and the whole work ends.
An extended orchestral interlude named by the
composer ‘The Exploration’ comes next with the
characteristic 6/8 rhythm finally appearing
recalling the ‘Prologue’. It merges by way of seven
brass chords (based harmonically on the second
verse of the ‘Prologue’ into ‘The City’, a complex
structured movement yet following a logical pattern
of four parts and reflecting the shape of the poetry.
The mood is sensual and contemplative but with a
more agitated third section: “The long obliterate
traces of mankind returns from darkness as we
excavate . ...”". Of the other three sections, the first
is built around the little repeated note figure of the
outset, the accompaniment continuing in an
abstract fashion, the vocal line being shapely and
containing an important two semiquaver and
quaver motif. A passage of string chords links into
the section using a highly atmospheric texture
created by strings and solo wood wind interspersed
by a more regular triplet accompaniment. The
fourth and final section recalling the first but scored
for
harp
and
melancholic:
percussion
“little
is
votive
very
distant
offerings
of
and
hope
scattered, scattered all their wishes lost, lost as their
voices singing or whispering”’.
‘“Avenues and Circles” follows this, being the most
conisistently fast song of the cycle and it should need
no explanation. The sixth, “The Mound Burial” is
totally different, using quite unashamedly melody in
a very elegiac way.
The final song starts as the opening of the work,
hear the lamentation in broken ribbons of the
suffering on the cross, then the ‘“‘race to the abyss”.
The representation of the Eucharist is heard once
again on strings only, although now not in broken
rhythms but in the measured tread of a divine
dissolving into the second orchestral interlude called
offering.
spirits whose images remain?”’. After a pause, more
“The Return” bringing in elements from several
previous songs. The voice eventually enters with
“The
Museum’
proper,
the
music
moving
relentlessly towards the climax: “Where are the
quotations from the other songs mingle until music
from the second verse of the first song takes over. It
ends triumphantly and quite suddenly.
The new work for the Guildford Philharmonic
Orchestra is scored for a standard symphony
orchestra with an important percussion department
that includes a marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel,
tubular bells and tam tam. The orchestration is
highly colourful within the confines of providing an
effective yet supportive accompaniment to the vocal
line and the problems of balance have been
overcome largely by treating the work as a kind of
concerto for orchestra with baritone solo and
displaying small but constantly changing groups of
instruments and much solo work particularly for the
wood
wind.
The
vocal
line encompasses
many
moods ranging from the elegance and tranquility of
‘The Mound Burial’ to the ritualistic and heroic
declamations of ‘Avenues and Circles’.
Programme note by the composer.
THE INHERITOR
Prologue
High sun, full noonday, where my shadow’s cast,
this is my day, my strength: the years I climb
reach to achievement, if I turn back, look down.
I know myself heir to each ruined town,
harbourmaster to the wrecks of time,
rememberancer to my world for all the past.
I walk among the ruins, gaze at broken stone,
touch coin and cup, read man’s silenced speech,
names of conquests, name of king and state,
trace roads through deserts to a city gate,
to the last dispossession I may reach,
the intimate sadness of some light, fragile bone.
The City
I know myself heir to each ruined town . . .
No map names this place nor marks its being.
These mounds and hollows might be nothing more
than natural rock under the wavering grass,
ripples of flowers then their falling seed.
Wild bees make honey in a hollow tree,
scattered, scattered, all their wishes lost,
lost as their voices singing or whispering.
Avenues and Circles
Storytellers say these stones were dancers
because they pair in avenue and circle:
what was the music to which they might have
danced?
Storytellers say these stones were dancers.
Masked in granite, no faces turn in greeting,
cloaked in limestone, no hands meet to touch,
if there was laughter it is hushed and hidden,
creeping grasses bind their feet to stillness
because there is no music for their dance.
Where did the rumour start — that these were
dancers?
What midnight caught them in its power for harm?
Who saw the figure end, heard music close?
Who mourned their absence, searched the dancing
places
but found no son or daughter, dark or fair,
only stone pillars in avenue or circle,
tall as soldiers, creatures without faces?
Storytellers say these stones were dancers;
dare they believe that stones once moved to music
that lured, or drove or charmed
these mountain splinters here to watch the moon,
to foretell all her phases, her eclipse?
The Mound Burial
Dear love at rest
I lay a flower by your hand,
a head of yarrow,
all I could find
in this cool land
as summer ends.
Dear love, you lie
slender as shadow
that sleeps on grass
below a winter tree.
snakes find small, sun-warmed ledges where they
When night’s dark falls
coil;
the shadow goes
ants build their citadels and corridors . . .
this little world of late-come citizens
as you have gone.
inherits here, inhabits here, survives
your coverlet.
the long obliterate traces of mankind.
My flower lies
beside your hand.
Remember summer
dear love, in death,
The long obliterate traces of mankind
return from darkness as we excavate
give back to daylight street and market place.
We find the temples and the names of gods,
shrines where blessing follow sacrifice,
little votive offerings of hope
Now earth must be
as I, lifelong
must remember today
when summer ended.
The Museum
Rachmaninov composed “The Bells” in 1913 and
dedicated it to Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw
In these tall rooms
Orchestra of Amsterdam, yet the work was not
we walk through history.
published until 1920, and even then the full and
Spears and shields once marked and stained with
vocal scores disagreed with one another. Even in the
modern photo-reproduction of the 1967 Russian
publication of the score there are still discrepancies,
blood are ranked in order, outlasting their old wars,
tortures and betrayals eased to silence;
while those who fought for long-changed boundaries
and it is up to conductors to make up their minds as
are lost beyond all courage, fear and pain.
to which version is used. Fortunately, he has only
one serious choice to make, for Rachmaninov left a
Beauty’s jewels will not be worn again,
nor household goods be used at any hearth.
revised version of the third movement simplifying
the voice parts, not because of the difficulties of the
Clay cups will not hold water, gold cups wine,
hunger and thirst and feasting are all ended
for those whose strewn possessions have been found
original, but mainly so that the chorus tells more
effectively against the vast orchestra. Most
conductors play the original Scherzo, but today it
has been decided to allow the audience to hear the
under the waves, under the haunted ground.
In these tall rooms
gods are assembled,
revised version that Rachmaninov went on adding
creators and destroyers without power.
to through the 1930s.
They gaze at crowds who are not worshippers,
The work is in effect a choral symphony in four
who know their fables, who do not come for blessing.
movements, the first being an Allegro, the second a
Where are the spirits whose images remain?
Lento, the third a Scherzo marked Presto and the
Patterns of life, no stranger than our own,
assembled here piece out a map of time,
fourth another slow movement with an Allegro
middle section. As is normal in Russian symphonic
landscapes inhabited by many dead
usage, the accent is not upon development in the
music but rather upon contrast and colour and only
whose faces and whose voices are unknown.
In these tall rooms I find the world I have inherited.
the different moods suggested by the different
atmospheres of bells in Poe’s poem form the binding
Ursula Vaughan Williams 1979
element
to make the work a single entity.
Rachmaninov succeeds in creating a work quite
unlike any other in the choral repertoire. Not only
INTERVAL
the orchestra but also the chorus are given a bell-like
material and although the solo vocal lines enclose
the rich Rachmaninov melodic line, even they
Tickets for the concert on 24th February are on sale
in the foyer during the interval.
sale this evening, also key rings at 75p in the foyer.
occasionally have chiming intervals. The
orchestration that we are familiar with from the
Piano concerti abounds everywhere, but the darker
THE BELLS
colours of the symphonies invade the score and are
consistent with the text.
Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra brochures are on
Rachmaninov 1873-1943
Allegro ma non tanto
Presto
Lento
Lento Lugubre
THE BELLS
I
Listen, hear the silver bells!
Silver Bells:
Hear the sledges with the bells,
How they charm our weary senses with a sweetness that compels,
In the ringing and the singing that of deep oblivion tells.
Hear them calling, calling, calling,
Rippling sounds of laughter, falling
On the icy midnight air;
And a promise they declare,
That beyond Illusions’s cumber,
Births and lives beyond all number,
Waits an universal slumber — deep and sweet past all compare.
Hear the sledges with the bells,
Hear the silver-throated bells;
See, the stars bow down to hearken, what their melody foretells,
What a passion that compels,
And their dreaming is a gleaming that a perfumed air exhales,
And their thoughts are but a shining,
And a luminous divining
Of the singing and the ringing, that a dreamless peace foretells.
11
Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of tender passion their melodious voice foretells!
Through the night their sound entrances,
Like a lover’s yearning glances,
That arise
On a wave of tuneful rapture to the moon within the skies.
From the sounding cells upwinging
Flash the tones of joyous singing
Rising, falling, brightly calling; from a thousand happy throats
Roll the glowing, golden notes,
And an amber twilight gloats
While the tender vow is whispered that great happiness foretells,
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells, the golden bells!
I11
Hear them, hear the brazen bells,
Hear the loud alarum bells!
In their sobbing, in their throbbing what a tale of horror dwells!
How beseeching sounds their cry
’Neath the naked midnight sky,
Through the darkness wildly pleading
In affright,
Now approaching, now receding
Rings their message through the night,
And so fierce is their dismay
And the terror they portray,
That the brazen domes are riven, and their tongues can only speak
In a tuneless jangling wrangling as they shriek, and shriek, and shriek,
Till their frantic supplication
To the ruthless conflagration
Grows discordant, faint and weak
But the fire sweeps on unheeding,
And in vain is all their pleading
With the flames!
From each window, roof and spire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
Every lambent tongue proclaims:
I shall soon,
Leaping higher, still aspire, till I reach the crescent moon;
Else I die of my desire in aspiring to the moon!
O despair, despair, despair,
That so feebly ye compare
With the blazing, raging horror, and the panic, and the glare,
That ye cannot turn the flames,
As your unavailing clang and clamour mournfully proclaims.
And in hopeless resignation
Man must yield his habitation
To the warring desolation!
Yet we know
By the booming and the clanging,
By the roaring and the twanging,
How the danger falls and rises like the tides that ebb and flow.
And the progress of the danger every ear distinctly tells
By the sinking and the swelling in the clamour of the bells.
IV
Hear the tolling of the bells,
Mournful bells!
Bitter end to fruitless dreaming their stern monody foretells!
What a world of desolation in their iron utterance dwells!
And we tremble at our doom
As we think upon the tomb,
Glad endeavour quenched for ever in the silence and the gloom
With persistent iteration
They repeat their lamentation,
Till each muffled monotone
Seems a groan,
Heavy, moaning,
Their intoning,
Waxing sorrowful and deep,
Bears the message, that a brother passed away to endless sleep.
Those relentless voices rolling
Seem to take a joy in tolling
For the sinner and the just
That their eyes be sealed in slumber, and their hearts turned to dust
There they lie beneath a stone.
But the spirit of the belfry is a sombre fiend that dwells
In the shadow of the bells,
And he gibbers, and he yells,
As he knells, and knells, and knells,
Madly round the belfry reeling,
While the giant bells are pealing,
While the bells are fiercely thrilling,
Moaning forth the word of doom,
While those iron bells, unfeeling,
Through the void repeat the doom:
There is neither rest nor respite, save the quiet of the tomb!
Poem by Edgar Allan Poe
English translation by Fanny S. Copeland from the Russian of K. Balmont.
23rd February 1980 at 7.30 p.m.
Sunday 24 February 1980 at 3.00 p.m.
Guildford Methodist Church Hall
Guildford Philharmonic Society Members’ Evening
Civic Hall
A Recital of sacred and secular music by The
Concerto for violin and orchestra, Tchaikovsky
Guildford Consort
Symphony No.6 (Pastoral), Beethoven
L’Italiana in Algieri, Rossini
Nigel Kennedy, Violin
Guest Conductor, James Lockhart
GUILDFORD PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Director of Music/Conductor: VERNON HANDLEY
First Violins:
Cellos:
Leader:
Eldon Fox
Geoffrey Thomas
John Stilwell
John Ludlow
Joan Atherton
Christopher Bearman
Pauline Sadgrove
Sheila Beckensall
Tina Macrae
Hywel Davies
John Gralak
John Hursey
Mary McCleod
Kathleen Hamburger
onathan Josephs
‘{lobert Lé]wcorc)k
Linda McClaren
Mulligan
Hazel
Martin Pring
e
g
Ke.vm Rundell
Michael Lea
Watts
Arthur
Rgndall Shannon
Michael Fagg
Andrew Read
ugald Lees
Second Violins:
Flutes:
Roy
Glosso
Foroi Nathan
:
Fieary Messent
Marie Louise Amberg
Constance Ames
Cathanp> Hlll
Celia Nicklin
Ruth Dawson
David Richmond
Christopher Nicholls
Rachel Bunn
Adrienne Sturdy
Ronald Tendler
Susan Thomas
Brian Underwood
Violas:
Piccolo:
Oboes:
James Brown
‘George Caird
Jane Marshall
Cor Anglais:
Bassoons:
Deirdre Dundas-Grant
Anna Meadows
Stephen Fuller
Harp:
Jean Price
;
Frrenstion:
Ric Parmigiani
Contra Bassoon:
David Chatterton
David Corkhill
John Colbourne
Horns:
Cecil Kearne
Peter Clack
Dennis Scard
Ronald Harris
Valerie Smith
Jonathan Bose
Thomas
Nigel
8
Pianoforte:
John Forster
Anthony Gray
Celeste:
George Woodcock
T
David Clack
Trumpets:
Simon Ferguson
Nicholas Bomford
Patricia Reid
Tenor Trombones:
Alfred Flaszynski
Ian White
Bass Trombone:
Martin Nicholls
Tuba:
Concerts Manager:
Stephen Wick
Kathleen Atkins
Concerts Assistant:
Stuart Green
Janice Knight
Timpani:
Jean Burt :
Harries
John
James Swainson
Victor Slaymark
William Green
Louisa Koziol
Paul Allen
The audience may be interested to know that the
violin sections are listed in alphabetical order after
the first desk because a system of rotation of desks is
adopted in this orchestra so that all players have the
opportunity of playing in all positions in the section.
William Hall.ett.
Susan Georgiadis
Frederick Campbell
Clisiets:
B lebianblston
Bass Clarinet:
Roger Blair
David Groves
ON THE MOVE
The Orchestra is actively expanding its activities in
the South East during the coming months.
On February 7th the Orchestra will have given its
annual Schools’ Concerts at the Civic Hall, at which
official representatives of all the County Music
Inspectors in the region were present.
In March the Orchestra will be giving a series of
concerts for Schools in Kent and arrangements are
being made for Schools in Folkestone to be more
closely involved in the Orchestra’s visit in May.
With the co-operation of local promoters and music
officers, it is hoped that the Orchestra will present a
schools’ concert in conjunction with a full
programme concert to the public in the evening in
other towns in this region. Such arrangements
would seem both practical and desirable in the
promotion of music to the largest possible audiences
and in giving the greatest opportunity for those in
the area to hear a professional orchestra.
On February 24th, the Orchestra welcomes guest
conductor, James Lockhart, who has been the
Musical Director of Staatstheater, Kassel in West
Germany since leaving the Welsh National Opera in
1972. The programme will include Beethoven’s
“Pastoral” Symphony, Rossini’s Overture “Italian
Girl in Algiers” and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto
in which the soloist is to be Nigel Kennedy.